Scavenger Hunt

On Tuesday, while we were at Academia, we got into our Scavenger Hunt groups and were handed our clue. Ours read: “To whom she gave the true cross we don’t know. But her namesake faces the Lido. On a pitch where you don’t throw, find g’nocatori and take a photo.”

We ruminated on the descriptions in the clue while we looked at the amazing artwork in Academia, eventually meeting up to share our ideas. Our original guess was that the location was Campo Santa Maria Formosa. But, after checking with our professors, we were told to try again. None of us had cellular data, so we relied on help from local Venetians instead of our phones. We decided to stay in Academia and ask the staff there. After asking the woman at the ticket desk, we were directed to the operator of the souvenir shop.

            This man was extremely helpful and worked with us to decipher the clue. It was interesting to watch him read the clue and immediately recognize the word “g’nocatori”, because the first time we read it, we had no idea what the word meant or even how to pronounce it. Also, the man was not sure what the word “namesake” meant. We tried to explain it to him, but once he looked up the translation in Italian, he understood the meaning.

            Breaking the clue down line by line, we set some criteria for our location. First, it must be named after a female and face the Venetian island called Lido. Second, it must be a place where children can play soccer, such as a campo or field.

            However, all of us were confused by the first line of the clue “To whom she gave the true cross, we don’t know”. The man believed it could be some statue of a woman holding a cross. However, none of the statues he knew of were located by a soccer field or faced the Lido. So, we switched to searching for places that faced the Lido and had a place for children to play soccer. With that criteria, the man quickly thought of Sant’Elena. As soon as he said it, all of us felt silly for not remembering the beautiful place our professor had shown us only a few days ago; the answer seemed obvious to us now. So, after profusely thanking our helper, we set off on the vaporetto for Sant’Elena.

            After a long vaporetto ride from Academia, we arrived at Sant’Elena. Walking over to the soccer fields, we were disappointed to find them deserted. There were no g’nocatori to be seen, only pigeons. So, we walked around the rest of the park in search of some Venetians, but could not find a single person, probably because school was not out yet.

            From this activity, I learned that similar to a city in the USA, Venice as a city has smaller subdivisions within it. The man that helped us at Academia said he did not know the Sant’Elena area because he was not from there. He had to look up pictures on his computer to make sure it faced the Lido. I found it interesting that in the same way I do not know every place in my state, Venetians are not familiar with every part of Venice. It is intriguing to think that we, as tourists, may know more about a part of Venice than an actual Venetian. Our group is extremely thankful for the help of the souvenir shop operator; it is comforting to know that Venetians are willing to help tourists.

            Overall, I greatly enjoyed our scavenger hunt and learned a lot from our helper. He not only taught us about Venice, but gave us insight into aspects of Venetian culture. His willingness to help us is similar to other Venetians, and is possibly indicative of the large population of tourists in Venice. It is likely that local Venetians are asked about directions daily, so most are used to offering their knowledge.